In Canada, many individuals are unable or do not meet the recommended nutrient intake from food alone, supplements may be one intervention strategy to help compensate for some of these inadequacies. The 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey found that 28 to 60 percent of individuals use supplements. Supplement use is positively associated with income and education level, with higher income individuals consuming a higher amount of supplements and supplement use increasing with education level. Previous research has identified several barriers to supplement usage, one of them being knowledge. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to develop a resource to help inform and educate consumers to select a supplement. A total of 31 participants were included in data collection. Three focus groups with participants residing in low income neighbourhoods in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, as well as, seven key informant interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. Audio tapes were transcribed and analyzed using thematic analysis to identify emergent themes. Data analysis yielded over 400 codes from the focus groups and key informant interviews. These codes were then grouped into themes and then further divided into three major topics: Barriers to Use, Resource, and Other. These data were subsequently used to create a new tool to help consumers choose an appropriate multivitamin. The aim of this resource is not to convince individuals that they need a supplement, but rather to provide information to help them choose an appropriate supplement once they have already decided to take one. This study will help to enhance the quality of information available regarding supplement selection through the use of an innovative online tool which is user friendly and meets the consumers’ needs. A newly created resource based on the expressed needs, ideas, and beliefs of community members and health care professionals will serve to help to fill a void in currently available information. This provides individuals with a resource to educate themselves to select an appropriate multivitamin.

“Mobile phones as a communication technology fits into culture rather than imposes on a culture” (Xin, 2006).Therefore, the main purpose of this research was to investigate and to understand the impact national culture has on mobile phone buyer behaviour of Thai and Swedish consumers. The research was also conducted to identify whether there was a significant cultural difference of buying behaviour for these two cultures when purchasing mobile phones.  Hofstede’s cultural dimensions (individualism/collectivism and power distance) was addressed in order to examine if culture influences Thai and Swedish consumers when purchasing a mobile phone.  In order to examine the difference between Thai and Swedish consumers, a data analysis was conducted through the SPSS statistical program using an Independent Sample T-test and Pearson Correlations. The questionnaires were distributes to both Thai (70 sets) and Swedish (70sets) students in the University of Malardalen. The findings indicated that there is a significant difference between Thai and Swedish consumers in term of mobile phone purchasing behaviour as far as Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. A major contribution to this study is that it will provide an insight into the differences in culture between Swedish and Thai consumers, the Eastern and Western cultural divide and how culture influences mobile phone purchasing behaviour.   The findings will also assist managers in mobile phone organizations to manage the dynamics of culture through time as well as to enhance their communications and promotional strategies within an overall marketing strategy. Incorporating culture into their overall marketing and communications strategies will enable organizations to meet customer needs and expectations, sustain and increase growth along with market share and to maximize profitability.

Title: Consumer’s behavior and trust in E-commerce. Authors: AMIMEUR Rachel and NOCERAS MULET Caterina Supervisor: LJUNGQUIST Urban Level: Bachelor Thesis in Business and Administration, Marketing Key words: E-commerce, consumer’s behavior, buying behavior, Trust, pure players… Purpose: The purpose is to explore how people working in E-commerce can encourage customers purchase decision on internet by improving customer trust during the purchase. Frame of references: First of all, we give a definition of consumer behavior following by characteristics affecting it and a description of different king of buying behavior. Then, we describe the buyer decision making process for a known product or an innovation. We bring some knowledge about trust in E-commerce. Finally, we present our conceptual framework. Method: First, we explain the methodological approach and then the research design. After this, we explain which research method we took and why. Finally, we explain the writing of our survey. Conclusion: Trust in E-commerce can be brought through for elements: product quality, payment security system, E-customer relation management, website quality and time of delivery.

Limited information exists regarding the efficacy of consumer-available antimicrobials for the use on produce surfaces. There is a strong focus on eliminating pathogens from produce at a commercial level, but consumers can achieve pathogen reduction in a domestic setting. The objectives were to determine the ability of consumer-available antimicrobials to disinfect waxed green bell peppers, determine the efficacy of knife cleaning methods, and assess the transfer of contamination. Peppers were inoculated via immersion in a cocktail of rifampicin-resistant Salmonella serovars and Escherichia coli O157:H7 to a final concentration of 5.6 ± 0.5 log CFU/cm2. In study 1, samples of 3 10-cm2 pieces of inoculated pepper were excised from smooth tissue and immersed in 3% (v/v) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), 2.5% (v/v) acetic acid, 70% (v/v) ethyl alcohol (EtOH), or sterile distilled water (SDW) for various lengths of time. Following treatment, samples were immersed for 30 s in a neutralizer solution. For study 2, inoculated peppers were chopped into 1-cm2 pieces. Knives were treated with one cleaning method: no treatment (control), towel wipe (TW), running hot water for 5 s (5SW), running hot water for 10 s (10SW) or 1% (v/v) detergent solution followed by hot running water for 10 s (ST). After treatments, knives were used to chop cucumbers. Surviving Salmonella and E. coli O157:H7 for both studies were selectively enumerated on lactose-sulfite-phenol red-rifampicin agar following aerobic incubation of plates for 24 h at 35 °C. Hydrogen peroxide exposure for 5 min resulted in reductions of 1.3 ± 0.3 log CFU/cm2 for both pathogens. Following 1 min exposure to EtOH, pathogens were reduced by 1.3 ± 0.1 3 log CFU/cm2; exposure for >1 min did not result in additional reduction. Acetic acid exposure after 5 min resulted in a Salmonella reduction of 1.0 ± 0.7 log CFU/cm2, but for E. coli O157:H7, exposure resulted in no significant reduction (p<0.05) of pathogens compared to SDW at the various points. For study 2, 5SW, 10SW, and ST were equally effective for knife decontamination. No significant difference (p<0.05) was found between log CFU/cm2 on knife blade and log CFU/cm2 transferred to surface of cucumber; therefore, viable organisms remaining on the knife blade were transferred onto the surface of the cucumber. Findings suggest EtOH and H2O2 may be effective consumer-deployable antimicrobials for surface decontamination of smooth produce, and contaminated produce can contaminate other produce. Further research of antimicrobial exposure on produce sensorial characteristics is also advised in order to determine how various antimicrobial exposure times will affect the quality and sensorial characteristics of the produce commodity.

In resent years the development of the whole globe boosts the exploitation of the region economy and the brand benefit of the merchandise increases by means of the characters. After that the issue that whether the brand benefit of characters derived be a sustaining development and improved becomes the focus of many discussions. During the period that the economy of Taiwan is seriously influenced by SARS in 2003, the behavior of consumers buying the respirators became the most important exchanging activities. This paper investigates whether the respirator possessed characters attributes in the form of questionnaire and discussed whether there are notable differences resulted from the influence factors by means of statistic analysis soft SPSS and statistic method. The intention of this paper is to understand the issues that are formed during the development process of the character brand by means of the consumer behavior of the respirator. The demonstration of this paper focus on the citizens in TaiChung as the object of the discussion by means of the collection review of the literature. This paper intends to forward some proper suggestions for the strategy of the development of the upcoming common consuming merchandise and to promote the quality of management programming.

The purpose of this study is to analyze consumer behavior in bride cake market. The study divides into two parts: one aims consumers who married before 1996 and are above 40-year-old. Through deep interviewing, we can profile consumer behavior in the bribe cake before 1996. The sample of the second study is singles of 18 to 35 years old. According to decision process of EKB model, this research tries to realize consumer purchasing behavior. The results of this research are as follows: 1. The scale of bride cake industry won¡¦t diminish at the present time. 2. Acceptable price is rising up. 3. Western bride cake is consumer¡¦s favorite, then goes to the mixed form. 4. Famous bride cake chain store is the most favorite buying place. 5. Credit is the favorite payment pattern. 6. Valuable information comes from relatives, friends, and store¡¦s sales. 7. In terms of product attributes, consumer emphasizes ¡§good taste¡¨, ¡§good services¡¨, and ¡§fair price¡¨. 8. Geographical variables don¡¦t have significant differences in consumer behavior. 9. Via cluster analysis, samples are divided into three groups, namely ¡§Fashion Seeker¡¨, ¡§Innovator and Adventurer¡¨, and ¡§Realist and economist¡¨. In terms of demographic variables, significant differences exist only in sex and age. There are more female in ¡§Fashion Seeker¡¨ and ¡§Realist and economist¡¨. And the age in these two groups is for the most part range from 18 to 25 years old. The age of ¡§Innovator and Adventurer¡¨ is for the most part range from 26 to 30 years old. ¡§Fashion Seeker¡¨ values ¡§vogue¡¨, ¡§beautiful looking¡¨ and ¡§notable brand¡¨, and concerned ¡§TV advertisement¡¨.

It pays much attention on environmental protection in the twenty-first century. However, in Taiwan, the recycling rate of dry batteries is still under 20% which is much less than that in American and EU. This study combined consumer behavior, environmental behavior and the related reference into the research model to find the factors affecting the buying and recycling of dry batteries. So two behaviors were predicted in the model. This study took 192 Kaohsiung citizens as respondents. After filtering out some unsuitable respondents, keep 179 samples to analysis. There are six variables in the buying model, such as price, self-efficacy, environmental concern, response efficacy, environmental responsibility, and habit. By using the method of hierarchical regression, results showed that price and environmental concern can significantly predict the buying intention (£]s > .25, ps < .001). Then put into other variables, habit can also affect the buying intention (£]¡×.28, p < .001). Besides it can increase the power of explanation from 31% to 37%. As for the recycling model, past habit is dependent variable and price, self-efficacy, environmental concern, environmental knowledge and age are independent variables. Results showed that self-efficacy and age can more significantly (£]s >.27, ps <.001) affect past habit than environmental knowledge (£]¡×.14, p < .05). and the R-square is 23%.

The objective of this study is to investigate consumers in the Taiwan region, the situation that when their due rights were being infringed, they had rather accept the unfair treatment from the manufacturers or suppliers, and will not strive for their own rights. In the consumer market, events of consumer right infringement are happening each day, seriously hindering the market order of fair competition. In this moment of the 2007, what are the thoughts within the minds of the consumers in Taiwan ? What are the factors that influence consumers striving for their due rights? In this study, the following issues were reviewed: relationships between manufacturers and consumers; consumer¡¦s cognizance of consumer rights; consumer protection; the roles of the law; government and consumer protection institutions in consumer protection; consumer education; and, consumer self-protection of consumer rights. A survey questionnaire was developed based on five themes of consumers themselves, consumer knowledge, law, government and consumer protection institutions. The survey attempts to understand the internal views of consumers. Consumers in the northern, central and southern Taiwan were randomly sampled according to population distribution. After collecting 170 questionnaires, the responses were coded and analyzed with SAS (statistical software) using Factor Analysis, one-way MANOVA and one-way ANOVA. Several latent factors were extracted, and the difference between consumer gender, age, education background and living region were studied. The results of statistical analysis indicate in 2007, the four main factors affecting consumers¡¦ strive for their rights are: (1) lack of external protection, (2) lack of self-confidence in claiming their rights, (3) dysfunction of consumer protection institutions, and, (4) lack of consumer knowledge. The results further show that the factors differ among living regions, however there is no evidence that there are differences in consumers gender, age and education background. This study has also investigates the level of consumer rights awareness, and the differences in gender, age, education background and living region in such cognizance. The results of statistical analysis show a very low awareness of consumer rights, and there is no evidence to conclude difference between gender, age, education background and living region.

This dissertation, in its most general context, is an investigation into the modeling of markets with imperfectly informed agents. In such markets, there will invariably be incentives for informed agents to take advantage of information asymmetries by disseminating the relevant information to uninformed agents. Similarly, there will be incentives for uniformed agents to reduce the adverse effects of information asymmetries by acquiring the relevant information. The primary purpose of this dissertation is to demonstrate that the understanding of such markets can be greatly enhanced by explicit modeling both channels of information flow as omitting either channel could eliminate important interaction effects. The arguments in this dissertation are narrowly framed within a familiar differentiated market in which firms advertise and each consumer is imperfectly informed about which product is most suited to his taste. However, the conclusions drawn in the dissertation are applicable to more general economic systems in which it is costly for agents to acquire information relevant to the decision-making process. There is a long-standing debate in the literature about whether or not advertising is purely informative. Although there is extensive research on advertising models and consumer search models, little is known about differentiated markets in which firms advertise and consumers search. In modeling advertising and consumer search, this dissertation questions the relevance of two pieces of evidence that have been offered against the view that advertising is informative. In the first instance, I demonstrate that firms may use purely informative advertising and still maintain market power in the long-run in monopolistically competitive markets; this finding thus rejects the argument that firms rely on manipulating consumer preferences in order to maintain market power in these markets. In the second instance, I demonstrate that advertisements without any information about the product being advertised may still be informative to some consumers; this finding thus rejects the argument that the widespread use of uninformative television advertisements is inconsistent with the view that advertising is informative in nature. This dissertation shows that our understanding of the nature of advertising (information dissemination mechanism) is greatly enhanced by modeling consumer search (information acquisition mechanism).

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